Hisham Matar was nineteen years old when his father, an opponent of the Gaddafi regime, was kidnapped in Cairo, where he was living in exile, and flown back to Libya: “He was imprisoned and gradually, like salt dissolving in water, was made to vanish.”
In the year following Hisham found himself turning to art, particularly the great paintings of the Sienese School. They became a refuge and a way to think about the world outside the urgencies of the present. A quarter of a century later, having found no trace of his father, Matar finally visits the birthplace of those paintings. A Month in Siena is the encounter between the writer and the city. It is an immersion in painting, a consideration of love, grief and a profoundly moving contemplation of the relationship between art and life.
This event will be chaired by Steven Gale
This event with Hisham Matar will be broadcast at 3pm on Sunday 22 November via the Creative Folkestone YouTube Channel. Click here to watch the conversation.
Follow the link above to YouTube, sit back, and enjoy the conversation. Although this is a pre-recorded conversation there will be an opportunity to have conversations with fellow watchers in the YouTube chat section.
Inspired by Autumn Reads? Our friends at Canterbury Christchurch University Bookshop are offering all the titles related to our festival at a discounted rate including A Month in Siena by Hisham Matar. Click here for more information.
Autumn Reads: Modern Nature is a new online festival exploring the written work of artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman. Through a programme of talks, workshops, films and more we invite you to discover the themes and ideas held within these diaries.
#AutumnReads
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